AMC Stubs A-List records more than one million in attendance

Seven weeks after launching its new loyalty program tier, AMC Theatres announced that AMC Stubs A-List has been responsible for more than one million in attendance at its movie theatres. AMC also announced that A-List recently crossed the quarter-million membership mark, now having more than 260,000 paid enrolled members.

This figure indicates some 85,000 A-List enrollments in just the past two weeks. AMC previously publicly reported 175,000 enrollments on July 31.

A-List members now account for more than five percent of AMC’s weekly attendance. Because A-List allows additional full-price tickets to be purchased during the reservation process, AMC reports that in the last week, for example, about 40 percent of A-List moviegoers purchased additional paid tickets to see a movie. A-List members themselves now account for more than four percent of AMC’s U.S. attendance.

At the time of launch in June, AMC said that it expected to hit 500,000 members one year later, at the end of June 2019. It would now appear that this enrollment target will be reached much sooner.

A-List is also showing broad geographic and demographic appeal. A-List members have utilized the service at each of AMC’s 640 locations spread throughout all 44 states in the U.S. in which AMC has theatres. Membership levels are strong across all age and ethnicity groups, and of special interest fully 28% of enrolled members are under the age of 30.

Early program analysis indicates incremental moviegoing frequency among members after joining the program is significant; AMC noted that 45% of A-List members were not previously signed up to its AMC Stubs loyalty programs.

AMC also announced that its previously announced 12-month protection guarantee from the date of a member’s enrollment against any increases in A-List monthly pricing has been broadened to further provide consumers with a sustainable value. The 12-month protection guarantee for members of A-List enrolling anytime in 2018 now includes no changes in the pricing, terms or benefits of the program within a member’s initial 12 months after joining the program.

Adam Aron, AMC CEO and president, stated, “We remain immensely satisfied by the initial consumer response to AMC Stubs A-List. With more than 260,000 members enrolled and over one million in attendance in just seven weeks, A-List in its early going is already demonstrating that it encourages moviegoers of all ages, locations and backgrounds to come to movie theatres more often, and they bring family and friends along with them. While one would think that the rate of signups will inevitably have to slow down at some point, enrollments now are continuing at quite a brisk pace, getting AMC to scale much sooner than we initially anticipated. This is very good for AMC and very good for our movie studio partners as well.”

Aron added, “We expect that AMC Stubs A-List will be a permanent part of our marketing activity going forward. It should be reassuring to hear that AMC is broadening our full 12-month guarantee for each member from the date of his or her 2018 enrollment against any changes in AMC Stubs A-List program pricing, terms or benefits. Since airline frequent-flyer programs were created almost forty years ago, enjoying the fruits of loyalty programs has become a basic fabric in the American way of life, even as these programs have changed and evolved over the decades. We fervently believe that consumers have a basic right to expect to be able to rely on us to honor the commitments that we make, and that they not have to fear constant program changes that come without warning. As a stable and sizable operator, we have every intention of keeping our promises and offering delightful and stress-free moviegoing experiences to our much-appreciated AMC Stubs A-List guests.”